The Easy Way Out review: Steven Amsterdam's brilliant novel about euthanasia

By Chris Flynn

August 18, 2016 — 2.48pm

FICTION The Easy Way Out STEVEN AMSTERDAMHACHETTE, $29.99

Although it may not seem so at first, Steven Amsterdam's third novel illustrates yet again his ability to mingle relatable human drama with mild speculative themes. Without being heavy-handed, Things We Didn't See Coming, which won the Age Book of the Year, posited what it might be like for ordinary people during an end of the world scenario, while What the Family Needed addressed nascent superpowers without the characters recklessly destroying any cities.

Author Steven Amsterdam.

In The Easy Way Out, Amsterdam presents a recognisable contemporary world, with a few minor kinks. In an unnamed city, Measure 961 has passed, allowing the creation of an assisted dying facility where terminal patients, after submitting to a number of stringent protocols, can choose to drink Nembutal. Friends and family members can thus be present as their loved one slips peacefully away. It is a dignified, merciful end.

Evan is a nurse, newly assigned to this facility. He is calm, professional and seemingly unfazed by his duties, which involve ensuring there are no last-minute doubts, and handing over the plastic cup of death. Evan's mother, the charismatic, funny and petulant Viv, also happens to be on her last legs. Consigned to Willow Wood, a nursing home where the staff are relentlessly perky and dedicated to prolonging their residents' lives to the bitter end, Viv is miserable. But a brain implant gives her a new lease of life, causing Evan no end of problems as she checks out of Willow Wood and goes on the lam, gambling and hiking, rejuvenated.

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The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam.

Evan has a glorious personal life, which he does not truly appreciate. He is the much sought-after third spoke in a throuple, with Lon and Simon, who love him dearly. Amsterdam writes sex beautifully – the bedroom hijinks of the boys are tender and erotic, a masterclass in understatement that will arouse irrespective of the reader's orientation. As it turns out, the man on man on man coupling (tripling?) proves to be the most normal aspect of this unsettling story.

The dramatic pivot of the novel arrives when the moral and ethical waters become muddied for Evan. A turning point comes for the nurse, who begins to understand that he is capable of providing a deeper, in his eyes, more humane form of advocacy.

Evan subsequently contacts the Jaspers, an off-the-grid organisation who offer a similar assisted-dying service, sometimes in questionable circumstances. Evan is hooked on not only helping people die, but being present in the moment when it happens, a beguiled voyeur.

Herein lies a tantalising conundrum for readers – where is the line drawn between enablement and support, and how can we live with the decision to extend or curtail suffering?

The Easy Way Out is a perfect storm of a novel. Superbly written and instantly engaging, with great characters and a killer (excuse the pun) premise, it also benefits from a fascinating real-world hook: Amsterdam has been employed for many years as a palliative-care nurse.

Although he points out in the acknowledgments that no actual patient details have been used in the narrative, Amsterdam's bedside manner pervades the book. The assisted-death scenes are deeply intimate, and full of loving grace. And the questions raised by the moral dilemmas faced by Evan are vast, yet brutally simple, questions the author admits to having fielded in real-world scenarios.

Is it acceptable to help someone end their life, and under what conditions? This is the marketing line, and rightly so. For Evan, the answer is clear, at least initially.

Once he becomes a Jasper, his role shifts into more troubling terrain. Not all of his visits are to terminal cases. The motivation for suicide is sometimes dubious. Still, Evan is not killing anyone. He is merely there for them at the end, a calm and graceful human presence, a kindly shepherd of the soul. What more could any of us hope for?